A WHITEFIELD woman had a narrow escape when a tree fell on top of her car during a storm.

Ruth Levine, 67, suffered serious injury when the tree fell onto her car near King David's High School, off Cheetham Hill Road.

She was parking and realised she was too far away from the kerb, so she decided to re-park.

She was just preparing to get out of the car after doing this when a tree came crashing down at the side of the vehicle, hitting the wing mirror and windscreen.

Ruth said: "If I hadn't re-parked, the tree would have hit me. I was two feet from death."

An ambulance service spokesman said: "She had a very lucky escape."

A passing motorist said: "There were pieces of branches all over the road so the winds had hit that area quite hard. Then I saw the police directing the traffic and saw the car underneath the tree."

Ruth's lucky escape happened last Thursday, January 11, when fierce gales of up to 70mph and torrential rain battered the UK.

A spokesperson for the fire service said: "Happily the Prestwich, Whitefield and Radcliffe areas were lucky to escape relatively unscathed which, given the severity of the winds and the damage they did cause, is quite remarkable. There were incidents of trees being damaged and branches across roads, but no-one was injured, for which we are very thankful."